Thanks Tim, and JCF. The "unborn child" issue is a part of this picture; and ultimately I think the decision has to be the woman's, in conversation with physicians and spiritual advisers, as it is a very serious decision. And the advice has to be free of any coercion or threat! I say this because it seems to me that the arguments about the nature of the embryo or fetus are inconclusive on both sides -- and it is this very ambiguity that demands agnosticism and leaves the decision in the hands of the one most directly concerned.

I'm always astonished how very little attention we pay to Free Will. Whenever anyone questions the state of the world the standard answer is that, in his loving wisdom, God has given us free will. Free will must be supremely important to him.And yet, we spend most of our time denying others the right to their free will.

Thanks, Erika. This is one of the reasons the Bonhoeffer's Ethic of Responsibility is so important. I don't know the German term for it, but the sense in which we have to engage with reality as adult persons is very powerfully expressed in his Ethics. This had a big influence on my own ethical thought.

My Contribution to the Listening Process

"a book that honors the Word of God, the faith once delivered, and moves it into our cultural context."—The Episcopal New Yorker

"seeks to meet opponents on their own ground, assessing their arguments carefully and refuting them courteously.... The value ... lies not in its conclusions alone but chiefly in the way Haller reaches them. Whoever is charged with compiling ... resources [on same-sex relationships] will want to add this book to the list."— The Anglican Theological Review